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Wikipedia, and if you just jetted into the country, be introduced
to the ‘official’ language in Uganda.
The English spoken in Uganda, like that spoken elsewhere,
has developed a strong local flavour. Though standard British
English is widely considered to be the “correct”
form of the language in Uganda, most Ugandans who speak
English have had little contact with native British speakers,
so everyday communication is successfully carried out in
the local form of the language. A number of patterns characterise
Ugandan usage:
Pronunciation
The speech patterns of Ugandan languages strongly influence
spoken English. Uganda has a large variety of indigenous
languages, and someone familiar with Uganda will readily
identify the native language of a person speaking English.
Ugandan speakers will alter foreign words to make them sound
more euphonic.
The Bantu languages spoken in southern Uganda tend not to
have consonants sounded alone without a vowel in the syllable.
Indeed the Luganda word for consonant is “silent letter”.
Thus the letters l and d in “Alfred” will be
given sound by the addition of an “i”, making
the word “Alifuredi”. (NB the letter I has the
“ee”, not the “eye” sound).
Luganda never has the R sound starting a word; it only
appears following the letters e and i within a word. The
L sound, conversely, cannot follow these sounds. Thus the
word “railway” gets its R and its L substituted,
giving “Leerwe”, often heard from Luganda speakers.
The initial r is dysphonic to the Luganda speaker but is
perfectly natural to the speaker of Runyankole and Rukiga,
which have few instances of the “L” sound.
Additionally, the letter ‘s’ in Runyankole and
Rukiga is more often than not combined with h to give a
“sh” sound.
The combination of the above three rules will transform
“calcium” into “carushium”. British
chemistry teachers in Uganda were mystified by such pronunciations.
A Ugandan hearing it not only understands the word, he accurately
identifies the speaker’s province of origin.
Idiosyncratic usage
Some English words have a peculiar meaning widely understood
within Uganda but mystifying to foreigners. The origin of
these usages may be obscure. The best known example is probably
to extend which in Uganda means “move over on a seat
to make room for someone else”.
Sometimes the usage has a traceable origin. A basement is
called a go-down, though the usual meaning (a warehouse)
is also known in Uganda, and a tow truck is a breakdown.
A guilty conscience becomes an adjective, a person is said
to be “guilty conscious”. The author has seen
this written in a judgement by a High Court Judge.
Farming is often referred to as digging.
The word vernacular, rarely used in ordinary conversation
in most of the English speaking world, is common in Uganda,
used to mean “local language”.
A taxi is a car or van used like a bus, carrying many persons
along a fixed route. A taxi taking one passenger at a time
on a negotiable route is referred to as a special hire.
A motorbike or bicycle used for the same purpose is a boda
boda. The term originated at the Uganda-Kenya border crossing
at Busia, where a kilometre of no-man’s-land separates
the two border posts. Travellers dropped off on either side
by buses or taxis were ferried over this distance by enterprising
cyclists, who would attract business by calling “border,
border”.
A building labeled “hotel” in a small town is
likely to be a restaurant.
A practitioner of witchcraft is referred to as a night dancer.
The origin is unclear, it is not a direct translation from
a Ugandan language. A practitioner of witchcraft in Uganda
is referred to as a “witchdoctor” this term
is often also used to refer to practitioners of local medicines
(e.g herbal medicines.) “Nightdancer”, however,
refers to a person who has been possessed by a spirit causing
him to dance naked in the wee hours of the night and very
often to defecate and smear human excrement on people’s
door posts. This can be found country-wide regardless of
tribal origin. It eventually became synonymous with “witch
doctors” as they were usually possessed by these spirits.
Foreign currency is forex, and bureaux de change are forex
bureaux.
Children whose fathers are brothers are considered brothers
and sisters in most African societies. The English word
cousin conflates them with the children of a maternal uncle
or those of aunts, who in a patrilineal society belong to
a different clan. Thus the terms “cousin brother”
or “cousin sister”, used to identify the close
cousins.
The title Captain is applied to all pilots, not just those
in command of a plane.
Mobile phone services are prepaid. A person finding himself
with inadequate prepaid time to make a call will ring up
the intended recipient of the call and hang up immediately.
The receiver of the call, hearing the phone ring once and
seeing the number, understands himself to have been beeped.
The understood message is “I wish to talk to you at
your expense”.
The Broadway play ‘The Vagina Monologues’ had
a brief but notorious appearance on the Ugandan stage before
being banned by government censors. The brouhaha led to
the entry of the word monologue into Ugandan English as
a euphemism for vagina.
The verb to put on is often substituted for to dress, to
be dressed or to wear. One may hear remarks such as “that
lady is rich, don’t you see how she is putting on”
and “the police are looking for a man putting on a
red shirt”.
The adjective “whole” is used to emphasise disapproval
of conduct unbecoming a person’s rank or station.
Examples: “How can a whole Minister go to that cheap
nightclub” or “How can a whole headmaster dress
so badly”. The usage is a direct translation from
several Ugandan languages.
The word ‘lost’ is used to mean that you haven’t
seen the person in a long time. One would say “eeeh
but you are lost”.
Borrowed terms and borrowed grammar
English has been absorbing foreign words for centuries,
in Uganda it is still at it. Usually words are inserted
into English because the English equivalent just doesn’t
convey the sense the Ugandan speaker wishes to convey.
To a man the term “brother in law” applies to
both a wife’s brother and a wife’s sister’s
husband. A man’s relationship with these two entails
two quite different sets of obligations and norms in Ugandan
society. Thus Ugandan speakers will often use the Luganda
muko (wife’s brother) and musangi (literally “one
you met” meaning you met at the girls’ home
while wooing them) to make the distinction.
Sometimes only a prefix is borrowed. In Luganda the prefix
ka- before a noun denotes smallness. A Member of Parliament,
referring to a five-foot tall Finance Minister, said in
a debate “the ka-man is innocent”.
Ugandans will frequently combine two sentences into one
using the word and, for example a barber will say “sit
down and I cut your hair” or a messenger “they
told me to come and you give me the package”. The
usage makes sense in most Ugandan languages but, interestingly,
in these languages the word and is implied, not stated.
The Luganda conjunction nti is often slipped into English
sentences instead of that. Thus one will hear a quotation
like “the Minister said nti corruption will not be
tolerated”. If the speaker is skeptical he will use
mbu instead of nti. “The Minister said mbu corruption
will not be tolerated” implies that it’s just
talk; business will go on as usual.
In some Ugandan languages the same verb can be used to express
thanks, congratulations and appreciation of a job well done.
It is normal for an African working in his own garden to
be thanked for his work by a passing stranger. So if you
buy a new car in Uganda, or win a race, do not be surprised
to find yourself being thanked. The expression “well
done” is extrapolated to specific actions. Examples
include “well fought” to soldiers on the winning
side after a war; “well bought” to someone with
a new car or house and even “well put on” to
a well-dressed person. See above for the interchangeability
of to dress, to wear and to put on.
The personal pronoun is usually added to imperative sentences.
Thus “Go to Entebbe” or “Please go to
Entebbe” will become “You go to Entebbe”.
“Please come here” becomes “You come”.
Proverbs
Traditional Ugandan proverbs, mostly clumsily translated,
are often heard. A popular non-traditional one is a justification
of official corruption, it goes “man eateth where
he worketh”.
- Wikipedia.org
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